Wave 59* **: X-citing possibilities. (*edited for posterity [**again])

[Valo487]

.....a member we've never gotten before?

[buttheadsmate]

There are other forums ?

[Mnemosis]

Interesting... I'm betting on Mystique. Maybe a dream's end boxset with parts to morph her into Moira McTaggert, a Colosus to sacrifice himself to the Legacy virus, and... Uh... ::shrugs::

[stack32]

And again, I truly am sorry for anyone who finds whatever we end up with disappointing, but in terms of overall perspective, is it really that big of a deal?

Yeah, it is a big deal to get a character correct, even if they seem relatively unimportant. I'm not suggesting they should stop production or make a fixed version later but it does look bad and unfortunately most people won't know the error is Marvel's fault.

[boyd]

Can't wait to see which group hates me!

The anti-sideburns crowd would be my guess.

[Zombie Shakespeare]

Can't wait to see which group hates me!

The anti-sideburns crowd would be my guess.

My brother was killed by an anti-sideburns extremist. I'd prefer if we did not joke about such things.

[fwoosheyman]

Those aren't just sideburns they are mutton chops. Calling them sideburns is like calling the Pyramids of Giza just buildings.

[Mnemosis]

Lol

[stack32]

Just ran across an article from November about these costumes that had this picture:

So there definitely was concept art around that had Bobby's costume different from the final version.

[MisterPL]

Cool find, stack, and an interesting article.

[Turtle]

Nice find. I can swallow the inaccurate Bobby pill. Still hoping for X-23.

[Dannii]

Just ran across an article from November about these costumes that had this picture:

So there definitely was concept art around that had Bobby's costume different from the final version.

What if they changed the whole color scheme of Bobby's uniform? Would we still be getting this light blue/white version or would DST change the colors for the final ones? I see now that DST worked on an early concept art, which is nice... this entire wave is really cool and I hope to see X-23 anytime soon... but there was a little change between concept art and the final look.

[DSTZach]

Yeah, there was. But in between working on this set and actually soliciting it to retailers, the team was busy working on 20-30 different waves and box sets. A minor costume change on one short-packed figure was clearly not on anyone's radar.

If the costume had changed color entirely, and our design no longer represented any Iceman costume past or present, we probably would have made a note of it earlier, but this was not caught. And as I said before, early response here was not particularly strong in favor of accuracy, or I would have rattled more cages.

We're checking status now.

[Freaqualizer]

Zach, from the comment you just made, how many waves do you guys already have planned out? Is the 20 to 30 just Marvel, or would that be all minimate waves. I'd be interested to know how many future mates you have floating around in that mutton chop adorned head of yours. LoL.

[Zexion_Armando]

They have enough to compenate till I die... Cough cough

[MisterPL]

And as I said before, early response here was not particularly strong in favor of accuracy, or I would have rattled more cages.

And as a collector who has always craved authenticity, that's what I was afraid of happening. The crowd that was once the most demanding has somehow been downgraded as apathetic.

Thank you, Generation Meh. If we stay on this course, all Minimates will be blank but come with Sharpies.

[MisterMiracle]

And as I said before, early response here was not particularly strong in favor of accuracy, or I would have rattled more cages.

And as a collector who has always craved authenticity, that's what I was afraid of happening. The crowd that was once the most demanding has somehow been downgraded as apathetic.

Thank you, Generation Meh. If we stay on this course, all Minimates will be blank but come with Sharpies.

Like I've said before, I don't care one way or the other on this figure because I don't want it.

But...I think everyone here does sill want authenticity with their Minimates. The issue is that without the black, it looks like a different look for this character. If the lack of black didn't look like an earlier incarnation of this character, I think everyone here would be freaking out instead of only 30-40% or whatever percentage it is. This isn't really the norm, just a very unique situation. You can't really blame DST because we've see the early protos that don't have black. You can't really blame the people that don't want the black because they can get Iceman in different looks this way with some easy customizing.

From one Mister to another, I'd be mad at Marvel if I were you for approving an Iceman costume that didn't quite match the others and then making some running changes late in the game.

[Mnemosis]

^--- This.

If DST showed us artwork of an Uncanny X-Men wave where Cyclops had a normal mask instead of the X-face, I'm sure we'd have questioned it. Had it been based on early art, we'd have fought to get it changed. Because as is, it would have looked like nothing at all.

This Bobby now looks - to me - like a passable version of either the ANXM OR the 90s/Champions look. I'm not okay with it because I'm lazy or whatnot. I'm okay with it because I prefer a not-100-percent-accurate version of the character I want than a 100-percent-accurate version I don't.

It's too bad for the ANXM completistd that it's worked out this way. That it happened at all and that by virtue of some of us liking the error, a greater outrage was not raised. But I say again - you do at least have powered up Iceman. You're not "missing" a team member, as has happened before

[Pete]

Yeah, there was. But in between working on this set and actually soliciting it to retailers, the team was busy working on 20-30 different waves and box sets. A minor costume change on one short-packed figure was clearly not on anyone's radar.

If the costume had changed color entirely, and our design no longer represented any Iceman costume past or present, we probably would have made a note of it earlier, but this was not caught. And as I said before, early response here was not particularly strong in favor of accuracy, or I would have rattled more cages.

We're checking status now.

For the record, the reason I registered my preference for the 'black' details was simply to counter the previous posts suggesting 'WE' all preferred it without.

If I am to ever have a gripe with MMMV, is that some members tend to speak on behalf of the whole community.

Zach, although I think it's great that you visit here to gauge opinion (and what an amazing thing it is that you actually take our opinions into account), i do have concerns that you are often only hearing opinions from the louder members here.

It'd be great if we had a customer feedback section with anonymous polls set up at your request, so you can more accurately use us as a MM focus group.

[MisterPL]

I'm just a curmudgeon. So there.

[Nessex]

This is a bit of a tough one. DST actually 'got it right' according to the source material they were supplied with. You can't really fault them for doing almost exactly what was originally asked of them.

It would be super-awesome if there was some way of correcting the error now that we've seen the final costumes in print, but if it can't be done - I think i'd have to agree with MisterMiracle and direct any blame towards whomever at Marvel signed off on these.

To be fair, action figure history is littered with inaccurate costumes. It'd be disappointing to have an inaccurate Bobby, but it's not a 'deal-breaker'.

[DSTZach]

Who are the loudest members? I can't tell, my speakers are broken.

If you mean the ones who come here with the most regularity, and post the most frequently, then yeah, I guess I listen to those people the most by default. In this case, when the pictures were released, the people who felt the pull to come here right away and talk about the pictures were pretty evenly split, as others have recorded.

BUT if you mean the ones who make the most inflammatory statements, calling into questions the integrity of DST and the overall quality of the Minimates brand today, touting how long they've been collecting even as they ponder aloud whether or not they should quit the line, then those are the ones who I consider the loud ones. Coincidentally, many of them are not frequent posters -- not a judgment, but I'm sure the two things are connected somehow. In this case, there seem to be a few people who turned up weeks after pictures were revealed and said, essentially, "this is an outrage," and now the tone of the conversation has changed.

If that'd happened earlier, we'd be in a better position to act on them. Maybe their feelings have only now grown strong enough to warrant comments, but I'm honestly trying to see if we can make the change, especially now that I know the reasons it was done that way.

And the 20 or 30 sets and assortments the team was working on between then and now are for all of the lines, and they are not all unseen. We've solicited 15 or 20 of them since this design work was done, this one was just delayed due to Marvel movie assortments. Most were seen at NYTF, and the rest will be seen imminently -- a few will be released at SDCC.

Edited May 27, 2014 by DSTZach

[DSTZach]

And we have a customer feedback section -- this entire forum, since I read any thread about any actual, active Minimate line. I don't think a general catch-all thread will make things any clearer. If you need to be anonymous to register disagreement, you are. I don't know most of your real names. If you're worried anyone here will think differently about you for expressing an opinion, they won't, as long as you aren't a jerk about it.

Also: the customer service address (customerservice@diamondselecttoys.com), Ask DST, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

[Mnemosis]

Zach is the Batman of customer service.

[DSTZach]

I may not be the marketing supervisor you want, but I'm the marketing supervisor you need.